TURKU, Finland – For about two hours on
Tuesday night, the members of the U.S. under-19 men's national team
held a players-only meeting in the dorm complex they are sharing
with the homestanding Finns and teams from Australia and England
during the FIL U19 World Championships.

It was a few hours after Team USA was stunned by the Iroquois Nationals in
a 15-13 pool play loss, the first time any Iroquois team had beaten
the U.S. in international field competition. The defeat was the
U.S.'s second of the tournament after falling to Canada in overtime on
Saturday. This time, after the Iroquois game, the team went to a
dinner with family members and staff at a local Turku
establishment, then took a bus back to the Petrea complex where
they've spent much of their time since arriving in Finland over a
week ago. There was plenty to talk about.

"It was pretty clear that even though we felt that we had better
talent than the two teams we lost to, the one apparent thing was
that they played more like a team," defenseman and co-captain
Stephen Jahelka said. "When everything goes wrong you rely on your
teammates, on the guy next to you. We talked about realizing what
we have in front of us, realizing a year's journey ends in five
days. Everything that we worked for since the four-day tryouts of
just brutal competition is all going to end in five days. We are
the ones that control how we go out of this thing."

The U.S. faces a road to a gold medal that will almost certainly
include rematches with both of the teams that already beat them.
After defeating Germany 22-2 in a quarterfinal game on
Wednesday, the first of those rematches is set for 8
p.m. (1 p.m. EST) on Thursday, when Team USA faces the
second-seeded Iroquois for the second time in three days in a
semifinal game. Top-seeded Canada plays England in Thursday's first
semifinal at 5 p.m.

Equipment manager Jay Bissette actually started off the players
meeting by reading quotes relating to the Battle of Midway, the
epic World War II battle in which the U.S. responded to Japan's
attack on Pearl Harbor.

"He said, 'Everyone is counting you out right now as the three
seed. I don't know why. Every one of us believes in you.' By the
end of the meeting everyone had smiles on," Jahelka said.

The meeting went uninterrupted until around 11 p.m., aside from
a food drop off by assistant general manager Chuck Apel. The last
30 minutes focused on Xs and Os, with the opportunity given for
players to ask questions and provide input about particular sets on
offense and defense. Midfielders Ryan Tucker and Sean Mahon stepped
up to provide direction about the team's man-up unit, about moving
and sharing the ball. The defense talked about ways to treat the
Iroquois' invert sets.

"Anything that anybody had on their mind, or on their chest that
they had to get off, we did it," midfielder Mike Tagliaferri said.
"It really helped us out, I think, and is going to be the
difference between the first half of this tournament and the
second."

On Wednesday morning at a walkthrough practice, the team worked
on some of what they discussed. Now, they'll put the practice to
use on Thursday in the semifinals. The championship game is set for
4 p.m. Saturday.

"We've taken our lumps, now it's time to step back up together,"
U.S. head coach Tim Flynn said.

For the U.S. to take its seventh gold medal, here are some
things to focus on, based on the view from my seat:

USA's Keys to Gold

PLAY LIKE IT'S THE FOURTH QUARTER ALL THE
TIME

The level of play has been raised by the U.S. group in crunch
time, coming back from three goals down in the fourth quarter
against Canada to go up one in overtime, battling back-and-forth
against the Iroquois in the second half after the Iroquois used a
6-0 run to take the lead. The U.S. has showed its potential and
ability to come up in big moments. It's just now time to have that
sense or urgency for all 80 minutes.

Against the Iroquois, the U.S. focused on getting out to a good
start. They did, leading 4-0, but allowed the Iroquois to come
back, in part, because of penalties and turnovers. A three-goal
spurt in the first four minutes of the third quarter helped the
Iroquois run to take a two-goal lead. Against Canada, the U.S.
trailed the entire game until tying the score at 7 midway through
the fourth quarter. It went up 9-8 in the first OT, but couldn't
close it out. The U.S. is 0-3 in games decided by two goals or
less, going back to its overtime scrimmage against a group of
Philadelphia all-stars. If they don't put away the Iroquois, and
potentially Canada, by the mid-fourth quarter, they will have to
reverse that trend.

TRANSITION, TRANSITION

The U.S. hasn't gotten many easy goals in this tournament. Aside
from three transition goals in the first half of the Iroquois game,
goals in unsettled situations have been few and far between. For a
team that hangs it hat on having versatile, athletic midfielders
who are capable of up tempo play, this is a concern. It's not a
matter of if, but when to push.

"In the Canada game we felt like they dictated the tempo of
play," said attackman Kyle Keenan, who had two goals and three
assists Wednesday against Germany, playing more of a feeder-type
role. "We're looking for the right time to push it and the right
time to settle down and get long possessions."

STAY OUT OF THE BOX

This is always a focus, but even more so here. Canada and the
Iroquois have potent man-up units. Canada was only 1 of 4 the first
time around vs. the U.S., but the Iroquois were 4 of 7. There have
been a ton of penalties called throughout this tournament on every
team, more than I'm used to in the U.S., particularly at the end of
scoring plays or for defensive interference. Officials have shown
that they will call a penalty at the tail end of a score, on most
post-whistle hits on the shooter, even ever so slight. And the
timing of these penalties hurts. You go man-down right after giving
up a goal. Sometimes, the U.S. has used this to its own advantage
on offense, although it's man-up could also use a boost, going 2 of
6 against the Iroquois and 3 for 8 against Canada.

In the half-field, a bonafide set up man or point-behind
attackman has not emerged. Tucker, who sat out Wednesday's game as
a precautionary measure with a shoulder injury, dictates a lot of
offense from the midfield, but the closest initiator down low has
been lefty Matt Kavanagh, who is the team's best finisher (and
leading scorer with 16 goals, 6 assists in five games). He normally
sets up shop on the right wing, but that could be the good starting
point. He's shown an ability to feed the center of the field from
that position and find open men, set a pick, as well as an ability
to score one-on-one from that spot. Against the Iroquois in the
fourth quarter, he took a defenseman one-on-one to cut the lead to
11-10, then to tie the game, he drew two defenders in virtually the
same spot and threw a beautiful pass to Tagliaferri on the backside
crease for an easy goal. It was instant offense. Kavanagh, a Notre
Dame recruit, and Tagliaferri, a California native, North
Carolina-bound middie who loves dodging the alleys and is athletic
enough to beat most defenders here, had all of the U.S.'s points in
the fourth quarter and each finished with four goals.

As for Kavanagh, I don't think there's a defenseman in the
tournament that can limit him all day. If he gets going early, it
should open up things for everyone else, and then he could pick his
spots when to go to goal himself. In a potential final, getting
Canada's big defenders moving around in the zone is key to open up
lanes to keep the ball hot. Also watch midfielder Sean Mahon, who
scored two goals and hit a pipe on his only three shots against
Canada, and contributed greatly the fourth-quarter comeback effort.
The U.S. has also been generally unlucky, hitting several pipes in
its last three games.

OWN FACEOFFS

This goes for particularly against Canada. So many times in the
11-9 overtime loss, the U.S. won the ball out of the initial
faceoff, but did not secure the ground ball and possession. The
U.S. maybe had one or two wing ground balls in the first meeting.
Canada's starting faceoff guy Jason Lindsay lost four of the first
five faceoffs he took and was replaced by Zach Currier, who was
very effective. Sometimes it looked like Currier was more
interested in knocking the ball away from Charlie Raffa, Tyler
Barbarich or Stephen Kelly and waiting for wing help to arrive
rather than winning the ball himself. The U.S. will need to adjust
to Canada's faceoff and wing play.

"Our guys did a nice job of tying them and trying to scrap for
ground balls," Canada coach Taylor Wray said. "For us, face off is
a ground ball between two competitors. We're going to get out there
and we're going to scrap, right and hopefully win the majority of
the possessions."

The U.S. fared batter against the Iroquois, winning 18 of 30
draws with about an even split in wins between Raffa and
Barbarich.

DEFEND THE CREASE

Goaltenders Zach Oliveri and Justin Turri have stopped basically
most shots that they should have. If they have a chance to see it,
there's a good chance they'll save it. But against Canada and the
Iroquois, who are all about "that one extra pass," the U.S. defense
has paid dearly for not covering off-ball finishers on the
crease.

"We fell apart a little bit defensively off-ball," Jahelka said
after the Iroquois loss. "They're very good at that, much like the
Canadians."

THE GOALIE TANDEM?

Oliveri and Turri have been used in some combination in each of
Team USA's three exhibition games and all but one of its tournament
games here. Aside from Turri playing all 80 minutes against England
while Oliveri rested, Oliveri started every game in Finland and
Turri entered off the bench to start the second half -- until
Wednesday against Germany. Turri started and Oliveri came in for
the second half. Will this continue in the medal rounds?

Both goalies have played well. Oliveri is a great communicator
as well a ball-stopper and under normal circumstances, there would
be no reason to take him out at the half. But the coaching staff
has gone with the tandem approach since the U.S.'s first
exhibition, playing Oliveri, a righty, with the lefty Turri. Turri
has played remarkably well for coming in cold, has made some
spectacular saves and was steady in the second half against Canada
in crunch time. Does the tandem approach help or hurt defensive
consistency? And/or what rotation will the U.S. staff go with?

DON'T PANIC

The U.S. was one offsides call away from closing out Canada in
the second, four-minute overtime period on Saturday. They were up
one before the penalty, which gave possession back to Canada and
ultimately led to them scoring the final three goals of the game.
The U.S. was never able to get the ball back. Against the Iroquois,
the U.S. rallied multiple times to tie the game in the second half
after it looked like momentum was well in the Iroquois' favor. In
short, this thing isn't over yet.